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[RC] [RC] training horses to drink - Hopkins, Lorretta J.My own remedy to this has been to use carrots at the start, which seems to be working for this horse. The 'I don't want to drink now -lets keep going till I collapse' problem persisted with my own Arabian to his own detriment. After two years of CTR's, trying to understand how to get this one to drink ( I carry water from home, tried all the 'tricks'), it turned out that he's low thyroid, and this was just one of the symptoms. No matter how thirsty he was, he would not drink. Now that he's on medication, he's much better about eating, drinking, and much healthier, more stable, etc.....thankfully for us both. The carrot reward started at the water trough in his paddock - he takes a drink, he gets a carrot. At his bucket, he takes a drink, he gets a carrot. Now, when I show up, he steps over to his bucket to get a sip of water, then looks up at me in hopes of that carrot or verbal praise. We will translate this out on the trail. He's just starting to learn to stop at the water spots, and check them out. With the big snow melt creating lakes on our property, I walk him out into a foot of water, we stand there (it's very relaxing), and when he takes a drink, he gets a carrot - now he's looking for puddles. My other horses have noticed this, and now they, too, are standing around in puddles, taking sips, looking up hopefully to see if a carrot is somewhere nearby ....... Lorretta J. Hopkins =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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